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Mr. Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors,
In compiling my first Annual Report on the health of the Borough I felt it would
be interesting and profitable to look back at the first Reports of my predecessors and
I found this indeed to be the case.
In 1874 Ealing, then with a population of 11,500 appointed Dr. C. A. Patten its
first full-time Medical Officer of Health. Great prominence is given in his report to
sewage disposal and water supply, subjects which are referred to in mine, but only in
passing. The state of the drainage in parts of the Borough is referred to as "giving rise
to considerable apprehension and alarm", whilst attention is drawn to the need for a
water supply in which the population of the Borough could have full confidence. The
infant mortality rate which then, as now, is taken to be one of the main indices of the
state of the public's health was 114 per thousand live births, a figure regarded with
satisfaction.
By 1915. which was the year for which Dr. Thomas Orr submitted his first
Report emphasis had shifted from the need to remedy defects of sanitation towards
the need for the organization of personal health services. Dr. Orr reported that in
response to the request of the Local Government Board that Local Authorities should
formulate schemes for a comprehensive Maternity and Child Welfare Service he had
included such a scheme in his report. In the following years this was the pattern that
was, in fact, followed, and which has developed into the services in the Borough today.
Dr. Orr recorded the infant mortality rate as 64 per thousand live births.
Dr. W. G. Booth was appointed in 1948 and like myself was faced with widespread
impending changes in Local Authority Health Services. In his case they were
brought about by the National Health Service Act and were in the direction of
reducing Ealing's powers in the field of health services and were consequently deplored.
In my case they are brought about by the London Government Act, which aims to
make Local Authority Health Services local. This is a prospect which I welcome,
giving as it does an opportunity to co-ordinate the health, welfare, children's and
housing services under one Council. Dr. Booth recorded the infant mortality rate as
26 per thousand live births.
In my Report prominence is given to smoke control, food hygiene the care of
old people and the multiple occupation of houses. The Borough's progress in smoke
control is proceeding satisfactorily. I consider this a most worth-while measure of
preventive medicine and it is to be hoped that the absence of large scale "smog" in
recent years does not result in any decline in official or public enthusiasm for this
measure.
In the vital field of food hygiene Ealing's Clean Food Scheme has proved a model
for many others, both in this country and abroad. It has met with considerable success,
but this in no way allows for any relaxation of effort, indeed the campaign must be
intensified.
Within the powers available, Ealing has been one of the most progressive
Boroughs in the country in its endeavours to provide old people with the high standard
of service which they deserve. In this connection I would like to draw attention
to the great help that the voluntary organizations in the Borough have so willingly
given.
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